Cave Story: The Tale of Mimiga Island
by wedge of cheese
Summary: This is a basically a retelling of Cave Story, but with a lot more detail and history. It doesn't always conform to the storyline of the original Cave Story; I basically used that storyline as inspiration for this one.
1. Armageddon

Alright, I finally have a small update. Chapters 10-13 have been written and added. The first 9 chapters are the same except for a few fixes of spelling/grammar errors. I decided to change the rating from K+ to T due to profanity in the newly added chapters (Sue turns out to be quite the pottymouth, lol) and possibly more graphic violence later in the story. Hopefully I'll be able to stop slacking so much on writing this now that I have more free time and more of an idea of where I'm going with it.

Thanks to HAL-9001 and ImmortalShippo for the reviews. To HAL-9001, the new chapters, as well as future chapters, will probably have a more substantial length, like chapter 9, and maybe at some point I'll go back and try to use more "advanced diction" although I haven't done that yet. To ImmortalShippo, keep in mind that I'm not intending for this fanfiction to conform entirely to the storyline told by Pixel in the original Cave Story (hence the inconsistencies in things like the origins of the Red Crystal, Demon Crown, etc), but I'm glad you liked it!

Anyways, I should probably say something about how I don't own Cave Story, it belongs to Pixel, etc so there ya' go.

So without further ado, I present to you... Cave Story: The Tale of Mimiga Island (incomplete draft 2).

* * *

Tens of millions of years ago, before the first humans came to be, the Earth was populated by a different civilized race known as the Mimigas. Like Humans, and like all sentient races, the Mimigas were fascinated with the mysteries of their own consciousness and free will. In the year 120,634,795 B.C., that fascination shook Mimiga society so deeply, it will never be the same again.

The Mimigas, using their highly advanced bio-engineering technologies, thought they had found a way to turn the unintelligent, uncivilized beasts of the wilderness into conscious, sentient individuals just like themselves. To test their idea, they put a huge flock of animals of all shapes and sizes into a large chamber containing a field of flowers. These were no ordinary flowers, though, when the animals eat them, they should become sentient, civilized beings. The flowers were a deep blood-red and had a very sinister appearance.

As soon as the first animal tasted the first flower, however, it became clear that the experiment would not go according to plan. Each animal, upon eating a flower, would appear to be in great pain, and would then begin to grow and change rapidly. The once harmless, peaceful animals had been transformed into a huge herd of giant, violent, mutated, bloodthirsty savages.

The monsters destroyed the chamber containing them, as well as the entire city of Mimigas where the chamber was located. It happened so quickly, the Mimigas didn't even have time to contact other Mimiga cities to warn them of the danger. The monsters multiplied and spread over the Earth rapidly, like some horrific virus, killing and destroying everyone and everything in their path. Most of the cities, like the first one, were destroyed so quickly, that no warnings were sent out. The vast majority of the Mimigas has no idea the monsters were coming when they did. Even the ones that did know were unable to defend themselves, with the exception of one city.

The Mimigas of that city had the clever idea of burrowing into the ground, forming a network of underground caves to shelter them from the monsters. The caves would not last forever, though; the continuous pounding of the monsters' feet on the ground above would eventually be enough to cause the caves to collapse. The Mimigas had to act quickly if they were to survive. They build a metal exoskeleton that circled the caves and went all the way up to the surface. They attached extremely powerful and durable fans and ion rockets to the metal ring on the surface. They then bio-engineered a single organism which they simply called "The Core". The Core was capable of consuming virtually any substance at an alarming rate, and making it undergo nuclear fission until it eventually broke down into pure water. This process releases a tremendous amount of energy. The Mimigas detonated explosives around the caves to separate the caves and the metal exoskeleton from the surrounding earth. They then turned on the fans and ion rockets, powering them with the energy generated by The Core. The fans and ion rockets propelled the giant island of earth gradually upwards, until it was eventually hovering many miles above the Earth's surface.

These few Mimigas had created a stable environment for themselves in the form of a island hovering in the sky. The Core disposed of the Mimigas' trash, supplied their water, and provided the energy needed to keep the island in the sky. The Mimigas had evaded extinction, but only narrowly, and the world had been changed forever.


	2. The Quest for Sentience

Despite the failure of the Red Flower experiment, the Mimigas' desire to discover how to create a conscious, intelligent individual did not diminish. Their next attempt to do so resulted in the creation of the Demon Crown. Supposedly, if this crown were placed on an uncivilized creature's head, it would give them consciousness and free will. They tested the Demon Crown on a Pignon. The experiment failed, but not nearly as epically as the Red Flower experiment had. The only effect the Crown had on the Pignon was that it began to hover and objects in the near vicinity of the Pignon started moving about randomly. The Crown was removed from the Pignon and placed on the head of a Mimiga. This Mimiga discovered that wearing the Crown gave him the ability to move himself and nearby objects with his mind, and to teleport himself and nearby objects.

The Mimigas decided it was too dangerous to leave the Crown in the midst of Mimiga society; the amount of power it gives the wearer would be enough to corrupt many. Destroying the Crown would also be very dangerous, though, because if it's not done in a very precise way, it will release all of its energy in a cataclysmic explosion that would take a big chunk out of the island and possibly destabilize it. As a solution, the Mimigas decided to seal the Demon Crown away in an extremely secure part of the island where no one would ever find it.

The only other such experiment attempted by the Mimigas was the Red Crystal experiment. The Mimigas attempted to create an individual from scratch, and they created the Red Crystal. At first, this experiment seemed to be a failure as well. The Crystal certainly had some interesting properties, such as the fact that it hovers without any apparent force holding it up, and that it is virtually indestructible, but it didn't seem to have any characteristics of an actual person. However, it is possible that the experiment was actually successful. Some Mimigas claim that the Red Crystal spoke to them in their sleep and gave them some obscure piece of advice or information, which eventually turned out to be extremely important. Still others swear that the Red Crystal has actually teleported to them in times of great need and its mere presence made a huge difference (deflected a bullet, pointed their attention in the right direction, or something along those lines).

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the Earth's surface, Humans had began following in the footsteps of their Mimiga predecessors. Humans had the rare gift of having discovered the art of magic, which is a feat few civilized races ever accomplish. There was a family of Humans who believed they knew a way to create a conscious, intelligent entity using magic. But, alas, the only thing they succeeded in creating was an explosion with a magnitude comparable to that of a Hydrogen bomb.

In a single instant, the kingdom that they had so loved was reduced to ashen ruins.

From that day forward, the practice, the study, even so much as the mention of magic was strictly forbidden in Human society. Many drastic measures, such as witch burnings, were taken to eliminate magic from the world, and, in doing so, prevent such an accident from ever happening again. These measures were successful; today, magic is merely a fairy tale in Human society, hardly anyone believes in its existence, and those who do are not taken seriously.

The most recent attempts anyone has made at creating a sentient being are the many attempts of Humans to create a computerized replica of a Human (a robot, in other words). Many robots have been created, which can process a lot of information, and do many cool things, but they, too, have failed to achieve consciousness and free will. A computer, by definition, is a device that strictly follows a series of commands, and therefore cannot have free will.


	3. Two Worlds Clash

For the most part, life on Mimiga Island was peaceful and uneventful. But on one fateful day, April 26, 2039, all that changed.

* * *

"Blast it, the power is out again!" exclaimed Folka, one of the two Mimigas in the control room. The control room is a place in Mimiga Island where two operators regulate the flow of water, energy, and waste throughout the island. This process is largely automated, but it is necessary to have people making sure the computers don't make a mistake, as they occasionally do, and to perform the tasks not delegated to a computer. Sometimes, when the amount of energy being consumed by the residents of Mimiga Island is too high, or when the amount of waste being sent to The Core is too low, various systems are turned off, in ascending order of importance (the last system to turn off would be the fans and ion rockets keeping the island in the sky). Folka and his assistant, Himosiku, have just experienced a shutting down of many of the island's systems.

"That's the third time this week this has happened!", Folka continued, "The residents really need to stop using so much energy!"

"Either that or they need to generate more trash," Himosiku replied.

Folka chuckled. "Yeah, at this rate, we'll be overrun with Humans in a few days."

The two of them chuckled, and, after a few moments of silence Folka said, "But seriously, that does worry me. If the radar keeps going out like this, we won't be able to see a Human aircraft approaching."

"It doesn't worry me that much," said Himosiku, "I mean, the one time in our history when those three Humans did come to the island didn't turn out so bad did it?"

"No, it didn't. Still, though, I get the feeling we were just lucky that those three Humans were on the higher end of the moral spectrum of Humans. Humans in general scare me. They seem to be a very flighty race. One moment peaceful, the next sending huge armies of soldiers out into mortal combat. They also seem quite careless, I mean just look at all the carbon-dioxide they're putting in the air! The less we have to do with Humans, the better!"

"Perhaps..."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, when finally Himosiku burst out, "Oh my gosh, I just remembered! Remember last week when there was that food shortage and I turned the priority of farming soil enrichment way up? Well, I forgot to turn it back down again! I bet that's why we've been having so many power shortages lately, the system has been wasting a bunch of energy on soil enrichment!"

Himosiku went over to a nearby console and pressed a few buttons. Sure enough, in a few minutes the radar came back to life.

Folka glanced at the radar. "Oh, shit!!" he shouted, "While the radar was out a Human aircraft was approaching and we didn't see it! Quick, activate the lateral thrusters! There's still time to get out of their path!"

Himosiku pressed a button on the console, then frowned. He tried again. Nothing happened. "The radar came back on, but the lateral thrusters are still out," he said.

Folka buried his face in his hands. "Well," he said, "I guess we'll soon find out if Humans are as bad as I thought they were."


	4. A Catchy Melody

Melody walked into her home with a broad smile on her face. "Mother, I've just had the most brilliant idea!", she said.

"Oh, and what might that be?" said the old woman sitting in the house.

"I've figured out what went wrong with father's experiment all those centuries ago!"

The old woman sighed exasperatedly. "Melody, this is the 25th time you have come up with one of these 'brilliant ideas' of yours. I showed you what was wrong with the other 24, and I'm sure I could do the same this time, but this time I won't even bother. You seem to think that the reason your father's experiment failed was because there was something he overlooked, or some mistake he made, so let me set you straight. Your father was a brilliant man. His knowledge of and skill with magic were completely unmatched. The only mistake he made was meddling in matters that simply are not to be meddled in, and I will not have you, my dearest daughter, making the same mistake!"

"Please, mother!" Melody pleaded, "This time I've seen a connection no one has ever seen before!"

"I can guarantee that you have not seen anything that neither I nor your father have seen before."

"But back then..."

"Be silent!!" the old woman interrupted, "Why must you keep obsessing over this!? It's what your father did, and look where it got him! I'm putting my foot down on this issue; you must stop trying to make this experiment work, it simply cannot be done! Forget all your 'brilliant ideas' at once! That's an order!!"

With that, Melody stormed out of the house under a cloud of anger. "I don't care what she says, I'm going to do this," Melody thought to herself, "I'll just have to find a way of getting around her."

* * *

That night, while the old woman was sleeping, Melody crept into her room, carefully opened the drawer of her bedside table, and took the precious key from within. As quickly and quietly as possible, she went to her workshop, made a copy of the key, and returned the original key to where she had found it. She closed the drawer, crept out of the room, and went to bed, leaving no evidence of what she had done.

* * *

The following day, as soon as she could, Melody went down to the storehouse and unlocked it with the key she had made the previous night. Inside were just the two items she was looking for, as well a garden patch filled with the sinister looking Red Flowers. She took the items she needed, and she also took a few flowers, thinking they might be useful as well. She wanted to get to the King's Table, where she had told her brother to meet her. Normally, she would just teleport there directly using her own magical abilities, but it was far away, and she didn't feel she had the strength to teleport so much distance on her own at the moment. She figured the fastest way to get to the King's Table would be to use the island's teleporter network to teleport to Grasstown, and then use the teleporter in the Grasstown shelter to teleport to the Plantation, which is close enough to the King's Table that she could teleport by magic once she was there.

She teleported to Grasstown, but she couldn't remember which of the many buildings in Grasstown was the shelter with the teleporter in it. She picked one building, hoping it was the right one, but it wasn't.

"What are you doing in my house?!?" came the angry voice of a Mimiga within. In her haste to leave, Melody dropped the Red Flowers she was carrying.

The Mimiga went to the door to see who the stranger was that had just come barging into his home, and saw her walking away quickly. He then looked down to see the Red Flowers on the ground. He didn't know what the flowers were, and he picked one up curiously. The flowers had an enchanting, intoxicating smell. The smell gave the Mimiga a very odd sensation of fascination with the flower. He wanted to know what it tasted like. He bit off one of the petals...


	5. A Strange Welcome

"Well," said Folka, "we might as well go welcome our guests, eh?"

"Indeed," responded Himosiku.

They opened the door leading from the control room up and out on to the Balcony. A helicopter had just landed on the Balcony and six Humans stepped out, talking amongst themselves.

"You know," said one of them, a short, bald man with red glasses, "Somehow, I don't think we're in Africa."

A tall, attractive, green-haired woman stood beside him. "You should have asked for directions," she said teasingly.

All of them laughed, except for another man who bore a strong resemblance to the woman. He didn't laugh, he just wore a rather impatient-looking expression on his face.

The two Mimigas stepped out from the control room. The Humans all stared in surprise at these strange rabbit-like creatures. The Mimigas grinned sheepishly, and Folka said, in a falsely cheery voice, "Welcome to Mimiga Island!"

"Ummm... thanks?" responded one of the two children, both of whom had the same green hair as the woman and the man with the impatient facial expression. Their hair was naturally green; it was a bizarre gene that ran in the family.

The Mimigas chuckled. "I guess we have some explaining to do," said Himosiku.

They spent the next 10 minutes or so explaining to the Humans about where they were, the history of the island and the Mimigas, and about the three Humans that had come to the island before.

There was a loud beeping from within Folka's pocket. He pulled a strange-looking device out of his pocket and looked at it. "Oh, no," he said, "There's been a terrible accident! We must tend to it. Feel free to come with us, if you like."

The eight of them set off through a door on the balcony and through a long, winding cave. With the Humans out of earshot, Folka and Himosiku conversed between themselves.

"So, what do you think of these Humans?" said Himosiku.

"Well," said Folka, "most of them seem fine, but I'm worried about that one man, the one with the green hair."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he seemed to be bored and devoid of emotion most of the time, except whenever one of us mentioned anything to do with violence, then I would see this flicker of something like bloodlust in his eyes."

"Hmmm..."

"And what worried me even more was his reaction when I mentioned the Red Flowers and the Demon Crown. There was such a clear power-hungry look on his face as I was explaining those two things. That man is not to be trusted!"

"You're probably right."

They came to a door at the end of the cave which led out into a lighter, more open cave. The eight of them were at the very top of the cave, and there was a vertical shaft leading downward into the main body of the cave.

"Stay put!" said Himosiku, "I have to enter the access code, so we can go down this shaft."

Himosiku went over to a nearby keypad and entered a code. Date, the green-haired man, discreetly glanced at the keypad, observed the code that Himosiku was entering, and memorized it. Once the code was entered, a platform just below the bottom of the shaft raised up several feet until it was even with the bottom of the shaft. A bunch of metal blocks extended from the sides of the shaft, forming a staircase down to the platform below.

"Had you tried to descend the shaft before I entered the code," Himosiku explained, "those metal blocks would have slammed together, crushing you between them. We are extremely careful about preventing anyone from passing through here without permission."

Once they had reached the platform at the bottom of the shaft, Himosiku pulled a lever and the platform descended back down to where it had once been, and the metal blocks returned to their original positions in the side of the shaft.

While the six Humans followed their Mimiga acquaintances, Folka explained to them the nature of the accident that they were tending to. "For some odd reason, a few Red Flowers were left lying around in the middle of Grasstown. This will be investigated carefully; what little remnants of the Red Flowers still exist are supposed to be carefully protected. Anyway, though, an ignorant Mimiga got his hands on one of them, not knowing what it was, and ate it. We now have a frenzied Mimiga rampaging around in Grasstown. Luckily, seeing as Grasstown is a dangerous place as it is, most of the Grasstown residents are strong, brave, and armed, and they are currently succeeding in keeping the frenzied Mimiga more or less under control until reinforcements arrive."

When they, as well as some other armed Mimigas, showed up in Grasstown, they found the Grasstown residents struggling to keep the frenzied Mimiga in his home. With the help of the reinforcements, they were able to force the Mimiga into his home, and into a closet. While everyone else was struggling to seal the closet shut, Date picked up one of the Red Flowers and studied it carefully. He noticed a seed pod dangling from the stem. He opened the pod to see it full of the precious seeds of the Red Flower. He gazed hungrily at the seeds. "These seeds could be the beginning of a dream come true!" he thought to himself, as he picked the seed pod off of the flower, and quietly escaped, unnoticed, from his companions.


	6. Earning a Reputation

Melody arrived at the King's Table to find her brother, Ballos, waiting for her.

"Okay, it looks like this won't be as easy as I first thought," said Melody, "Mother has rejected my idea once again, which means what we do here must remain a secret from her. It also means that, since she won't be helping us, you and I will each have to work much harder to accomplish our goal. I feel confident that we can do it, though, especially with the help of these." She reached into her pocket to pull out the Red Flowers, but they were gone. "Blast it, I must have dropped them along the way! Oh well, they weren't that important anyway. I have the two essential items right here," she said as she placed the Demon Crown and the Red Crystal down on the King's Table.

Ballos looked doubtful. "I don't know, Melody, I'm not sure the two of us are skilled enough at magic to do this. And it sounds as if the fact that you dropped whatever those non-essential items were will be even more of a problem. Besides, I'm sure Mother has a good reason for being so adamantly opposed to our experiments."

Melody slammed her fist on the table. "Blast it, Ballos! Do you really think I'm going to give up that easily!? We must do this, Ballos, don't you see!? We must finish the work our father started, lest his death be in vain!!"

"Our father is not dead," Ballos replied calmly.

"He's as good as!" said Melody impatiently, "And be careful about saying that. The Mimigas are all supposed to think that you, Mother, and I are the only three Humans on the island, remember?"

"Yes, I remember," said Ballos in a bored tone of voice, as though he had already been told this many, many times.

"So, anyway, about our experiment..." Melody then proceeded to explain to Ballos all the details of the vastly complex spell they were going to attempt to cast. On a sheet of paper, she wrote a sort of script of the general things they would have to do. "Before we actually cast the spell, we will need about a week to prepare. There are various 'helping spells' that need to be cast, and we need to memorize all the incantations and hand gestures."

* * *

Date found a teleporter in Grasstown and teleported to a location called "Arthur's House". A Mimiga, presumably Arthur, was in the house.

"What on Earth..." the Mimiga began to say, but Date was feeling particularly impatient at the moment, so he pulled out a gun and, without even looking, instantly killed the Mimiga with a single shot. Date did not like what he had just done. Not because he cared for the Mimiga or felt any remorse, but because it would have been so much more satisfying to make the Mimiga's death long and drawn out; to make the Mimiga fear him profoundly and beg for mercy before being killed. He wanted to find some way to glorify this act of killing, so that it would chill the blood of all who heard of it. More than that, it would make all who heard of it hold him, Date Fuyuhiko, in utter awe.

What he needed was a symbol. A symbol that, one day, every sentient being on the face of the Earth (and above it, for that matter) would come to fear and respect. Something along the lines of Hitler's swastika, or Voldemort's dark mark. He wanted to take a symbol that already existed and distort it somehow to fit him. The idea of using Voldemort's dark mark (a skull with a snake for a tongue) as such a symbol appealed to him, but the reference wouldn't make sense to those unfamiliar with the storyline of Harry Potter. What he really liked about the dark mark was the snake. He searched his mind for other familiar symbols involving a snake. The fist such symbol he thought of was the medical symbol (two snakes coiled around a pole). He could replace the pole between the snakes with something more sinister, but what? A gun? A sword? No, those were too ordinary. He looked down at the seeds he had taken from the house in Grasstown. Then it hit him. Two snakes coiled around a Red Flower! It was genius. He had fallen in love with the sinister, twisted beauty of the Red Flowers at first sight. He took out a sheet of paper and sketched a Red Flower on the bottom half of the paper. Date understood the subtleties of the Red Flower's form like no other, and his sketch was such a good likeness, there was simply no mistaking it for an ordinary flower. He finished drawing the symbol by drawing the two snakes coiled around the flower's stem. Then, he wrote the following message above his symbol:

"This is the fate of all who stand in my path.

Yours truly,

The Doctor"

Finally, he taped the sheet of paper to the Mimiga's corpse, and threw it out the door of the house, laughing uncontrollably all the while.


	7. Scout Robots

"Well, today certainly has been hectic," said Jack.

"I know," replied Toroko, "a frenzied Mimiga running amok in Grasstown, and then Humans landing on the island!"

"What's next?" King said wearily.

Just then Jack let out a frightened yelp. The other two followed his gaze and stared in shock at the dead body of Toroko's older brother, Arthur.

"I just had to ask, didn't I?" said King shakily.

* * *

Now that The Doctor had taken care of the dead Mimiga, he promptly got down to business. He sealed the door of the house shut, and disconnected the teleporter, lest anyone should find him. Conveniently, there was a patch of earth in the basement where he could begin growing the Red Flowers. His goal was to find the Demon Crown. He knew he had been extremely lucky that it had been so easy for him to get his hands on the Red Flowers, and that finding the Demon Crown would probably not be so easy. He had a plan, though. And once he had found the Demon Crown, the rest would be child's play.

Using the crown's power, he could easily enslave all of the island's inhabitants. He would then force them to grow massive quantities of Red Flowers. Once there were enough flowers, he would force the Mimigas to eat the flowers (after sealing them each in individual chambers from which they couldn't escape, of course). And then, then the real fun would begin. He would maneuver the island so that it was heading quickly toward some huge metropolis. He would then destroy the island's Core, timing it so that the island would land right on the metropolis, like the fist of God descending from above. Finally, he would unleash the frenzied Mimigas upon the Earth, in a day that would mark the beginning of his total world domination! Oh, how glorious it will be!!

But for the time being, he had a lot of work to do. He pulled out his suitcase. Computers were his area of expertise, and his suitcase contained a large quantity of spare computer parts. In a few days, using these parts, as well as some structural materials he cannibalized from various places around the island, he had built an array of 20 armed scout robots. He was quite impressed with himself for having been able to build them so well, considering his short supply of time and resources. He had also made a device which allowed him to communicate with the robots at a distance. He had named all of the robots after punctuation, so that their names could be displayed as a single character on the device (or as two characters, in the case of the four female robots: Parenthese, Angle Bracket, Square Bracket, and Curly Brace).

He then sent the robots off in search of the Demon Crown, giving each of them a Red Flower. He wasn't sure if the Flowers worked on robots, but he had programmed the robots to eat the Flowers if they needed extra strength, just in case they might work. He sent four robots to each of the five locations that the teleporter in the house linked to. To the Egg Corridor, he sent Semicolon, Angle Bracket, Plus, and Backslash. To Grasstown, he sent Parenthese, Asterisk, Equals, and Comma. To the Sand Zone, he sent Hyphen, Slash, Period, and Percent. To the Labyrinth he sent Question Mark, Colon, Exclaimation Point, and Ampersand. And finally, to the Plantation, he sent Apostraphe, Quote, Square Bracket, and Curly Brace.


	8. Fate Approaches

Apostraphe, Quote, Square Bracket, and Curly Brace stepped out into the Plantation and immediately began searching everywhere for the Demon Crown. After hours of fruitless searching, they finally decided that the Crown was not in the Plantation. There were two paths that they could follow to continue their search. One was to go outside and descend the Outer Wall of the island. The other was to go up a long, vertical shaft at the top of the Plantation. They decided the Outer Wall looked too dangerous, so they tried their luck with the shaft.

Apostraphe went first. He jumped high into the air, launching himself into the shaft. The very instant he entered the shaft, two large metal blocks flew out of opposing walls of the shaft, crushing him between them in a shower of sparks and metal. Upon seeing Apostaphe's mangled dead body falling from the shaft, Square Bracket decided that the Outer Wall didn't seem so bad anymore, and she ran off toward the exit, leaving Quote and Curly Brace to brave the shaft by themselves.

Curly sent a message to The Doctor, describing their predicament. The Doctor was glad he had spied on Himosiku entering the code back when they had first landed on the island, and he sent a message back to Curly telling her the code. She entered the code, and the platform they were standing on ascended into the shaft, and the metal blocks in the sides of the shaft moved inward, forming a staircase, which she and Quote climbed with ease as they resumed their search for the Demon Crown.

* * *

"All right, this is it!" said Melody, her voice wired with excitement, "The spell is finally ready to cast!!"

She placed the Demon Crown carefully in the center of the King's Table, with the script on the edge of the table, where she and Ballos could read it. They didn't really need the script, though, they had practiced everything so much.

She and Ballos stood a few feet away from the table with the Red Crystal between them. Melody stood on the right of the Crystal with her left hand pressed against it, and Ballos stood on the left of the Crystal with his right hand pressed against it. The two of them had their free hands extended in the direction of the Demon Crown. Then they began weaving the spell, occasionally glancing at the script, just to be sure.

* * *

Quote and Curly Brace made their way through the long, dark cave and eventually came out on the Balcony. They looked around, taking in their surroundings, when suddenly Quote spotted it. The Demon Crown. A mere 50 feet away. The two of them ran off in that direction, stuffing the Red Flowers in their mouths, just in case.

* * *

The spell was almost complete. Melody and Ballos thrust their hands that were touching the Red Crystal forward, propelling it into the air. It came to rest directly over the Demon Crown, which suddenly ascended and began hovering about 6 or 7 feet in the air. As the two of them began chanting the final incantation, Melody closed her eyes, savoring the feeling that she was experiencing. They were finally going to succeed where so many before them had failed. They were finally going to create a conscious, sentient, intelligent individual from scratch.

They pronounced the final word of the incantation. Now, all they had to do was wait. Melody opened her eyes to see the Red Crystal shooting bright red beams of energy down into the red gem on the front of the Demon Crown, just as she had expected. But what she didn't expect to see was the two Humans (at least, she thought they were Humans, although there was something not-quite-Human about them) standing beneath the Demon Crown, grasping it and wearing triumphant expressions on their faces. Melody was furious. They were going to ruin everything! And how did more Humans get on the island anyway!?

The air beneath the Crown began to shimmer, and after a few seconds, it exploded violently. Melody, Ballos, Quote, and Curly Brace were knocked unconcious by the explosion. The Demon Crown fell to the ground, unharmed, and the Red Crystal just kept floating mysteriously above the scene.


	9. Loyal, Devoted Servants

The Doctor could hardly believe his eyes. It seemed too good to be true. Two of his robots had already claimed to have found the Demon Crown, and not even so much as a day had passed since he had sent the robots out on their mission. However, both of the robots became nonresponsive only a few seconds after reporting their find. At least they had had time to relay their location to him, so he could go check out the location himself to see if the Demon Crown was, indeed, there.

He teleported to the Plantation, ascended the shaft using the code he had spied Himosiku entering, made his way through the long, winding cave, and finally ended up on the Balcony. He strode over to the King's Table, and, sure enough, there it was, the Demon Crown. Right in the middle of the open. There was no sign of the two robots. There were two people lying on the ground. The Doctor didn't know if they were dead or merely unconscious, nor did he really care. He had found what he was looking for. He picked up the Crown, holding it reverently. Very slowly, very deliberately, he placed it on his head. It was a glorious feeling. Never before had he felt so powerful.

He noticed a sheet of paper lying on the ground next to where the Crown had been. It was scorched and torn, but still basically legible. He pocketed it, thinking it might provide some clues as to what exactly had transpired here.

He entered the long, dark cave that connected the Balcony to the Plantation, and was disappointed by how very plain and boring it was. He decided to have some fun and spice this place up a bit. He extracted all the most toxic chemicals he could find from the surrounding earth, using the power of the Demon Crown, and made large pools of it all over the place. He then made jagged spikes of rock burst forth from the ground is several places, and coated the tips of the spikes with the toxic chemicals. Finally, he teleported a bunch of critters and bats from other caves in the island to this one. He chuckled to himself as he imagined how the Mimigas would react when they saw this mess.

Now that the cave was basically impassible without the aid of some sort of levitation device, the whole Balcony area belonged to The Doctor. He would use it as a base while he conquered the island. He entered the control room that he had seen Folka and Himosiku come out of on the day of his arrival. He removed the piece of paper that taken from the King's Table from his pocket and began to study it.

* * *

When Melody came to, there was no sign of the Demon Crown, the Red Crystal, or the two not-quite-Humans that had ruined the spell. The absence of the Demon Crown was very bad news. She shuddered to think of what could happen if that Crown ended up in the wrong hands. Ballos was still unconscious. "Ballos, wake up!" she shouted, and jabbed at him. He began to stir. Before either of them could do or say anything else, though, a very strange feeling washed over Melody. It was like a desire to submit, to obey. The feeling passed very quickly, but left her feeling very uneasy. In a few seconds, it happened again, only stronger. "What's going on!?" she cried out. It happened a third time, but it was different this time; there was a definite command that this feeling, this voice in her head, wanted her to obey. To her horror, she found that it was physically impossible for her not to obey the command, which was telling her to teleport to the island's control room, so in a flash, that's just what she did, leaving Ballos lying bewildered on the ground.

There was someone in the control room with her, a Human that she did not recognize, and, to her horror, the Demon Crown was perched menacingly upon his head. "That's interesting... very interesting..." the stranger said pensively. "What's your name?" he asked her.

This man frightened her. She wanted to lie to him, to conceal her identity, but as soon as he spoke, she felt that same compulsive, inexplicable desire to submit and obey. "Melody," she said, the word spilling out of her mouth against her will.

"Indeed," the man said, "You are one of those three Humans that came to the island so long ago, and, due to your mother's magic, age at 1/100th the rate of normal Humans?"

"Yes."

"I see." He pointed out the sheet of paper he was reading. "I was just reading this paper, you see. It didn't make much sense to me, but the moment I read the word 'Melody', I had the strangest feeling. It was a feeling of deep power, even deeper than the feeling I got when I first donned this Crown. I spoke the word again, and the feeling came again, only stronger. It felt like I was calling out to someone, so I tried doing just that, I called out 'Melody, come here at once!' and here you are."

This was even worse than Melody had though it would be. The Crown was not supposed to give its bearer the power to control the actions of others, it was merely supposed to give its bearer the powers of teleportation and telekinesis.

"Now, Melody," the man continued, "my question for you is what were you doing at the King's Table with this Crown, and what happened to those two robots that I sent up to fetch it?"

She fought back the force compelling her to speak to him.

"Tell me." he said.

She found that, when he phrased his question as a question, it was possible to resist the urge to answer. However, as soon as he phrased it as a command, a physical force that was not her own began moving her mouth and vocal cords against her will.

"My brother and I were trying to create a sentient being using magic, but then your blasted robots showed up and ruined the whole thing! I haven't the faintest idea what happened to them."

"Tell me the truth!"

"I am. For all I know, your robots may have just wandered off on their own."

The Doctor pondered this for a few moments. If this newly found power of his were as powerful as it seemed to be, then Melody was certainly telling the truth. "I wonder if this power works on anyone besides you," he mused, "like my idiot sister, for instance. Momorin, take your cell phone out and call me on mine." He waited for his cell phone to ring. When it didn't, he said, "Alas, evidently not. Something special must have happened when you tried to cast that spell, that bound you to the Demon Crown, which means you're the only... wait a minute... your brother was helping you, wasn't he? What's his name, Ballos, isn't it?"

"Yes, his name is Ballos. He was named after our father." Melody said this last bit of information without meaning to. She had not been trying to resist The Doctor at all, and had ended up giving him more information than he had asked for. The more she experienced this perverse power of his, the more sickened she was by it.

"Indeed. Ballos, come here!"

In under a second, Ballos had appeared in the control room just as Melody had a few minutes earlier. He looked extremely confused.

"Whoa... what... how... what on earth is going on?!?" he stammered.

The Doctor chuckled, "Ballos, little Ballos," he said mockingly, "You remind me of a little creature, scared and confused. I think you would do much better as a big, powerful creature. Are you familiar with the storyline of Lord of the Rings? I remember one such creature in particular from that story, the mine-dwelling Balrog. What a magnificent creature it was. You would do so much better as a mighty Balrog than as the pitiful little Ballos that you are now," and with that, Ballos' body began to grow and change. It became big, wide, boxy, and metallic. When the transformation was complete, Ballos resembled a giant toaster.

"Well, admittedly, it's not nearly as magnificent as the Balrog from Lord of the Rings, but it will suffice," said The Doctor, "Now, just to test you, what is your name?"

"Ballo..." he started to say, but choked on his own words. "Ball... baloll..." He sighed. "Balrog," he said dejectedly.

This was simply more than Melody could stand; she broke down into tears. What sort of sick, twisted power was this that this man could warp her brother's identity so? It was even impossible for her to continue thinking of her brother as Ballos, she could only think of him as Balrog!

The Doctor turned to face Melody. "Melody, my dear," he said in a falsely sweet voice, "why so miserable? It seems that you are nothing but a deep pit of misery," and then she, too, began to change. Her amber hair became a sickly shade of dark bluish-green. All the color drained from her skin, leaving it milky white. Her skin contracted around her bones, giving her the appearance of one who hadn't eaten in several days. The once beautiful Melody had been transformed into a sobbing, grotesque, imbodiment of Misery.

The Doctor seemed to think differently, though. "My, Misery," he said with a trace of something akin to lust in his voice, "you are so beautiful, now. You used to be beautiful as a flower, but now you are beautiful as a Red Flower!"

Misery quailed under The Doctor's intense gaze.

"I don't think I introduced myself," said The Doctor, "I am The Doctor, and you, Balrog and Misery, are my loyal, devoted servants who will have the privelege of serving me for all eternity while the rest of humanity perishes under my endless wrath! Now, enough of this talk, let's get down to business. Balrog, you shall go round up the Mimigas. Bring all of them to the Plantation, so they can start growing the precious Red Flowers. Misery, you shall tend to those five Human fools that call themselves my family. Do as you will with them, just make sure they're out of the way," and with that, Balrog and Misery involuntarily set off to do their master's bidding.


	10. Toroko's Lament

Misery was simply livid. At that moment she despised every single creature and being alive. She was sick of being ordered around and having her plans trampled upon. First by her mother, then by those two blasted robots, and now by this stupid "Doctor". "Well," she thought to herself, "There is at least one little silver lining. When The Doctor gave me my orders regarding those five other Humans that recently landed on the island, he specifically told me to 'do as you will' with them, and that's just what I plan to do!" It was time for her to have some fun!

Misery began searching by picking a random location to teleport to. She picked Grasstown. To her delight, the two Human children were standing right in front of her!

"There you are!", she exclaimed. "Now, I don't want to cause you any trouble," she said in a falsely sweet, mocking voice, "The Doctor just wants you out of the way," and with a wave of her staff, she sent the boy flying backward through the door of a nearby building, which slammed shut as soon as he was through. She then shot a blast of magic at the door, causing it to rust shut and trapping the boy inside.

"What have you done to my brother!?!?" the girl screamed, while charging at Misery. Misery teleported effortlessly out of her path.

"Tut, tut, that won't do at all," said Misery, "now, why don't you just come with me peacefully? Otherwise, I may have to..."

"You can't do anything to me, you shit-headed bitch!!!" the girl interrupted.

Misery smiled menacingly. "Have it your way, then," she said calmly. She spread her arms dramatically and the tip of her staff flashed with magical energy. A bolt of lightning came hurdling down from nowhere, striking the girl dead center. The girl let out a bloodcurdling shriek as she was engulfed in a dazzling inferno of magic. There was an explosion, and the magic stopped. When the smoke cleared, the girl was gone, and in her place was a young Mimiga.

She looked down at herself, stunned. "I... you... what...?" she stammered helplessly. But alas, to Misery's great irritation, her sudden stunned speechlessness was extremely short-lived. "GO FUCK YOURSELF IN HELL!!!!", she raged, and with that, she charged at Misery once again, letting loose a continuous stream of insults, threats, curses, punches, and kicks. Misery wasn't in the mood to deal with this nonsense, so she teleported the girl to the Mimiga Village, hoping that would be "out of the way" enough for The Doctor.

* * *

King, Jack, Himosiku, and Folka had gathered in the Mimiga Village Assembly Hall for an important meeting.

"I'm sure you all know why we've gathered here," King began, "but in case you don't, we need a plan of action to take care of this Human 'Doctor' that recently arrived from the surface."

"Well, first we need to make sure that he doesn't get his hands on any of the powerful items on the Island, namely the Red Flowers and the Demon Crown," said Himosiku.

"Huzzah!"

"Honestly, Jack, this is no time for celebration!" Folka said exasperatedly.

"What!?" Jack replied, "I didn't say anyth..." but before he could finish, a large boxy metallic creature that none of the Mimigas present recognized fell out of the ceiling. The four Mimigas scrambled toward the exit, but the creature moved with surprising speed, blocking their exit.

"Where do you think you're all going?" said Balrog before lunging at the two nearest Mimigas, Falko and Himosiku, catching them in his powerful grasp, and flying away with them right back up through the ceiling.

"What the devil was that thing!?" said King.

"I have no idea," said Jack, "but something tells me we haven't seen the last of it."

* * *

Toroko sat alone in the reservoir, her feet dangling in the water, tears dripping down her furry Mimiga face. The death of her older brother, Arthur, had hurt her deeply. She had always felt a strong connection to and respect for him, and now a Human stranger from the surface had taken his life before being on the Island for even so much as a day.

While Toroko sat in despair, another young Mimiga girl suddenly appeared out of thin air, landing with a loud splash in the water and jolting Toroko out of her reverie.

"...AND YOU CAN EAT MY GODDAMN SHIT WHILE YOU'RE AT IT YOU FILTHY... Hey, where'd she go? Where am I!?" the newcomer said.

Toroko looked at this stranger in puzzlement. "Who're you?" she said curiously.

"Oh, um, hello..." the stranger said sheepishly, "I'm Sue, Sue Sakamoto. I'm one of the Humans that landed here recently. I just met this witch who turned me into a Mimiga and teleported me here without warning."

"Really?" said Toroko, "She does have a bit of an issue with controlling her anger, but I don't think she's ever done something like this before!"

"Well, there's no use moping about it," said Sue, "I'd better start trying to find my brother again, and I guess the rest of my fami... hey, what's wrong?" for when Sue had said the word "brother", Toroko's face had suddenly changed, reverting to its despairing appearance it had had before Sue's sudden arrival.

"Oh," said Toroko, trying to compose herself, "it's just, when you mentioned your brother... well... my brother... he's..." but at that point Toroko could hold back the tears no longer. Sue understood just fine; there was no need for Toroko to explain what she meant.

"It was so sudden," Toroko said tearfully, "One day some other Mimigas and I just walked up to his house, and found his body lying there with this note attached." She showed Sue the note from The Doctor.

Sue read the note. "The Doctor?" she said, "Who's that?"

"He's one of the Humans that landed on the Island with you," Toroko replied. "I've never seen him, but I've heard him described as 'tall, green-haired, and with a strange hungry-ish facial expression'."

Sue gasped. "Uncle Date?!?" she said incredulously, "I mean, sure, he's sort of a shady character, but this!? To take the life of a stranger simply because he's 'in the way'!?!? It's just... just inconceivable!" After a couple seconds of silence, Sue got a strange gleam in her eye. "Why don't we take him down!" she burst out excitedly.

"What!?" said Toroko.

"That's right," Sue continued, "Me and you, we go into your house, find uncle Date, if it really is him, and bring him to the Island authorities!"

Toroko didn't seem too thrilled by this idea, "Gee, I... uh, do you really think we could?" she stammered, "it would be... dangerous, very dangerous..."

"Don't worry about it!" said Sue enthusiastically, "We have the element of surprise! Besides, there's two of us and only one of him."

Toroko wanted to reject this idea, but as she looked into Sue's eyes, she saw a fierce combination of courage and determination, and in that moment she knew that Sue was someone she could trust, a friend who would not fail her. "If you're up for it..." Toroko began to say in a shaky voice, "then so am I." she said more confidently after a brief pause.


	11. Sue's Plan

After having vented most of her frustration on the two children, Misery now began to think more rationally, and to realize that being so harsh with the children had not been the wisest of decisions. Now, she had no clue as to the whereabouts of the other three people she was trying to track down. It would have been much more sensible, she realized, to try to finesse that information out of the children before sending them off to their respective locations. "When I find the next person," she thought to herself, "I won't be so hasty."

* * *

A talent for engineering was something that ran in both the Sakamoto and Fuyuhiko families, and the four current members of the adult generation of those families were no exception. Date Fuyuhiko's specialties were computers and robotics. He made his first quasi-intelligent robot when he was 13 years old, by combining parts from a computer and a toaster to form a little contraption which he called "Balrog". His sister, Momorin, was what you might call the "jack of all trades", not having prodigal skills in any specific branch of engineering, but being quite good at all of them. Then there was Itoh Sakamoto, the mechanic. Finally, arguably the most talented of the four, was Professor Bruce R. Sakamoto, Itoh's brother, Momorin's husband. Electricity and magnetism were his areas of expertise. He was famous among physicists for having discovered a general formula for the equivalent resistance between any two points in an infinite grid of one Ohm resistors. Momorin coined his nickname, "Booster", partly because it sound kind of like "Bruce R." and partly because of his ongoing project to create a lightweight, easy to use jetpack called a "booster" powered only by electricity.

After successfully containing the frenzied Mimiga in Grasstown, this family of Humans on Mimiga Island had gone their separate ways. Momorin and Itoh had gone off to explore the Island. The two Sakamoto children, Sue and Kazuma, had decided to stay in Grasstown for a while. None of them were sure where Date had gone off to. Professor Booster had found some Mimiga scientists who shared his love of electrical engineering. They had explained to him all about the teleporter network that ran through the Island and how it worked. "For each pair of connectible teleporters on the Island, there is one teleporter which is the 'dominant' teleporter," they had told him, "It is this teleporter that has the ability to establish or break the connection, although it is theoretically possible to establish or break the connection from the non-dominant teleporter. Doing that, however, takes a great deal of knowledge and skill, as well as time and patience." When he told them about his booster project, they said that his idea sounded similar to the rockets that held the Island up in the sky. They, too, were powered only by electricity. They explained to him the details of how those rockets worked, and he had a sudden inspiration for how to finally achieve his goal of building a completed working booster. He bade the Mimiga scientists a hasty farewell and set off in search of the materials he would need.

* * *

Sue practically exploded with excitement at Toroko's agreement to her plan. "Really!?!? You're up for it!?" Then she was suddenly serious. "You were right to say that what we're about to do is dangerous," she said, "and there is a chance of one or both of us getting hurt or killed. And if I'm still alive after this, I will probably be leaving the Island before too long. In any case, I want to give you something to remember me by once I'm gone." She pulled a silver locket on a necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Toroko. Toroko took it, but her hands were shaking, partly out of fear of what they were about to attempt, and partly out of her ongoing mourning of her brother's death, and the locket slipped out of her hands and sank to the bottom of the reservoir. "Oh, I'm sorry," said Toroko, "let me go get it...", but Sue put a hand out to stop her. "Don't worry about it," she said, "It's no big deal. Besides, it's the thought that counts, right?" Toroko smiled. "Right," she said.

The two of them headed out to begin their mission. But before they got to Arthur's house, King called out, "Toroko! I need to talk to you." Toroko left Sue to wait while she walked over to have a brief whispered conversation with King.

"What was that all about?" Sue asked when Toroko returned.

"Well, part of it is just King being paranoid. He thinks I shouldn't trust you just because you're Human." Toroko rolled her eyes. "But he also had some very strange news," she continued, "It seems two of the residents of this village have been kidnapped by a strange unknown creature."

"That is odd," Sue replied, "I wonder if that has any connection to this 'Doctor' you told me about."

When they reached the door to Arthur's house, they pressed their ears to the door to listen for any sign of activity within. Upon hearing none, Toroko took out her key, unlocked the door, and cautiously opened it. They didn't see anyone inside, so they stepped in and closed the door behind them. "Let's hide and wait and see if he heard us and will come to see what's going on. Then we can jump out and take him down!" Sue suggested. They both hid behind pieces of furniture and waited. But at least two minutes passed without anyone showing up, and without any sound of activity elsewhere in the house before they decided they had waited long enough. "Let's look upstairs," Toroko suggested, "he might be sleeping." But they didn't find anything or anyone of interest upstairs.

They explored the basement after that. At first it seemed that their mission had come to naught, but then suddenly Toroko gasped in shock. Sue followed her gaze, but all she could see was a small pool of water and a patch of flowers. "What is it?" she wondered. Toroko gestured toward the flowers. "Don't you know what those are?" she said. Sue suddenly remembered the "history lesson" that she and her family had gotten from Folka and Himosiku when they had first arrived on the Island. "Are those... the Red Flowers?" she said, "the ones that turn you into a raging monster if you eat them?" Toroko nodded.

They both realized that, although they had not found The Doctor, their time had not been wasted. It would not be good at all if the Red Flowers ended up in The Doctor's hands, and they now had the chance to take them from him. "If we mash the petals and put them in that pool of water over there, then the toxins should be too diluted to be harmful," said Toroko, "and it is extremely important that we destroy all of the seeds, otherwise he could easily grow as many more Flowers as he wants."

After they had finished sabotaging the Flowers, Sue seemed to become interested in the teleporter that was set up in the house. "I should probably go search for my family," she told Toroko, "and this teleporter would be just the way to do it." She sat down at the computer that the teleporter was connected to, typed in her name, and pressed "Log on". She double clicked on an icon labeled "Teleporter operation", and a window popped up asking her if she wanted to permit teleportation to the Egg Corridor. "What's the Egg Corridor?" she asked Toroko as she pressed the "yes" button.

"The Egg Corridor is a very large genetic engineering laboratory in which there are some Mimiga scientists trying to create dragons. From what I've heard, they've successfully created one sort of dragon called a 'Sky Dragon' which is capable of flying for extremely long periods of time. They're now waiting for the eggs to hatch."

This caught Sue's interest. "Hmm..." she said, "On the off chance that we can't get back to our helicopter, one of these dragons might be a good alternative for getting back home to the surface."

"You're not leaving that soon, are you?" Toroko said sadly.

Sue pressed the button on the computer to connect the teleporter to the Egg Corridor. "Don't worry," she said, "I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye," and with that, she disappeared to the Egg Corridor in a blur of blue light.


	12. Awakening

The only things of interest Kazuma found in the room that the witch had trapped him in were a computer connected to a non-functional teleporter, and a key hanging on the wall labeled with the word "Gum". Kazuma was skilled with computers and hoped that maybe he could figure out how to use the computer to get the teleporter working. After a few hours of messing around, all he had succeeded in doing was running a chat program that allowed him to communicate with other computer users on the island, none of which were logged on.

Just as he was about to give up, the computer beeped and the message "User 'Sue' has logged on to the 'Arthur's House' computer" appeared on the screen. That got his attention, and he started frantically typing pleas for help.

Sue?  
You there?  
It's me.  
Kazuma!  
I'm still trapped in that building the witch put me in.  
but there's nothing here.  
If you can hear me,  
please answer!  
...Please?

There was no response. After a few minutes he decided to try again.

Suuuuue!  
Please respond!  
Are you asleep?  
Your brother is so lonely.  
Answer me!  
I'm so hungry.  
There's nothing to eat and I've been reduced to feeding on cockroaches.  
...Ha-ha. That was a joke, ha-ha!  
...If I have to, though, I really will...

After a few more minutes of non-responsiveness, Kazuma decided he would just have to hope that his messages were received eventually.

* * *

The boy awoke to find himself in a dark, damp cave of some sort. He couldn't remember who he was or what he had just been doing, or what he had ever been doing, for that matter. He did know one thing, though: he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting around in this little cave.

The only way for him to go was up to a ledge that was pretty far above his head. He jumped over three times his own height into the air, easily making it up and onto the ledge. The fact that he had accomplished such a feat didn't seem at all odd to him. After all, he didn't know what it meant to be Human. He didn't know that he resembled a Human, nor did he know that most Humans could not jump three times their own height, and therefore, that he probably was not a Human, even though he resembled one.

The cave was filled with spikes and hostile creatures, but he was able to avoid them without too much difficulty. He eventually came to a door which led to a small room. There was someone sleeping at a table, and a treasure chest on the other side of the room. The boy opened the treasure chest to find a gun inside. He felt guilty about taking the gun while the person was sleeping, but on the other hand, he didn't much like the idea of having to deal with all those creatures in the cave without a weapon.

He examined the gun he was taking. It looked like it was either very old, or hadn't finished being built yet. There was some faded, hard to read text on the side. It looked like two words: "Polar" and a second word which was illegible, save for the first letter, "S", and the last letter, "R". There was a picture of a star on the side of the gun, and the boy though maybe the second word was supposed to be "Star". "Polar Star," the boy liked the name, and whether or not that was actually what the gun was called, he decided to call it that.

The only other option the boy had was to try to clear through a pile of loose debris he had spotted elsewhere in the cave. With the aid of the Polar Star, the trip back to said pile was even easier than the trip from it. He gave the debris a few quick blasts with the Polar Star, and it cleared away, allowing the boy to continue onward.

He eventually came to the end of the cave, where there was a door. He made to open the door, but as soon as he touched the doorknob, it gave him a nasty electric shock. He yelped and jumped backwards to see that a large eyeball on the door had opened and was glaring at him. He shot the door repeatedly with the Polar Star until it broke down.

He proceeded out of the door to find himself at the top of a larger, lighter cave. Looking down on the scene below him, he saw signs of life and activity. "Good," he thought to himself, "Maybe there are people down there who can give me some answers."

* * *

When the girl came to, she was thoroughly confused. She had no idea who, what, or where she was. She looked around her to see that she was in a cozy little house with four tiny little furry white creatures lounging about. They stared curiously at her, and she somehow felt she should know what these creatures were. She racked her memory, searching for a possible connection, but her memory was blank, and her searching was futile. Well, whoever and whatever these creatures were, she felt a sort of affection toward them, and a desire to care for them.

At one point, she looked down at herself to see that her clothes were covered with { and } symbols. Curly Braces. Suddenly, her memory clicked into place. "Curly Brace! That's my name," she realized, "And these creatures, they're called Mimigas. They all live here on this island floating in the sky. And me, I was..." she paused, trying to remember more details about her past, but that was all she could remember.

As time went on, Curly put aside her frustration with her memory. She had grown to love the four Mimiga children she had been left with, and had become their adopted mother. With them, she felt she now had a new purpose to her life, and could stop fretting about what her purpose in life had been before she had woken up here with the children.


	13. The Mysterious Newcomer

Misery was about to go looking for Itoh, Bruce, and Momorin, when suddenly she felt the magic of the Demon Crown seize her. She involuntarily teleported back to the room where she had first met The Doctor. Unsurprisingly, he was there in the room waiting for her.

"What progress have you made in getting the other Humans out of the way?" he asked her.

"I haven't found the three adults yet, my lord, but the two children I have already taken care of."

"And where are they?"

"Kazuma is sealed in a small building in Grasstown. As for Sue, I turned her into a Mimiga and teleported her to the Mimiga Village."

"The Mimiga Village!? You nincompoop, that's not out of the way at all! That's where I'm keeping the Red Flowers!" In a flash, he teleported to Arthur's house to check on his precious Flowers. Sure enough, they had all been destroyed. Not even a single seed had been left intact.

He returned to the room where Misery waited, and, in his fury, slammed her against the wall using the telekinetic powers of the Demon Crown. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO CARELESS?!?" he raged, "Who knows how long it will take me to find more Red Flowers!"

"The Flowers are stored in a secure storehouse in the Sand Zone which cannot be entered via teleportation unless the door is open," Misery said involuntarily, surprising herself. She had let her guard down. Whatever magic bound her and Balrog to The Doctor made it physically impossible for them to disobey any direct, explicit command he gave them, but there was also a more subtle side to it. The magic pushed them to answer The Doctor's questions and to obey any implicit command he might give them; although this magical push could be resisted with enough mental and spiritual strength and determination. Misery wasn't sure The Doctor knew this, though, and hoped that by engaging in submissive behaviors (calling The Doctor "my lord", for example), she could placate him into phrasing his commands in a way that could be resisted. This would be useless, however, if she kept letting her guard down like this and allowing these magical compulsions to overwhelm her.

"Very well," he said, "Balrog, come here!" and in a few seconds, Balrog was there.

"It seems that your dear sister is incapable of performing the simple task of getting young Sue Sakamoto out of my way," he told Balrog, "so I hope that you prove to be more competent than her at this task. Go to the Mimiga Village, find a young Mimiga girl by the name of Sue, and bring her to me. As for you, Misery, get back to taking care of those other Humans, only this time don't do such a horrible job," and for the second time, the two servants teleported out of that room to involuntarily play their part in The Doctor's dastardly plan.

* * *

As Toroko left the house, she locked the door behind her. When she had told Sue that King didn't trust Sue because of her being Human, she had been telling quite the understatement. King didn't only distrust Sue, he wanted to capture her and turn her over to The Doctor or to the strange boxlike creature, if either of them ever returned, lest his fellow Mimigas be taken instead. Toroko expected him to try to go after Sue, and would do whatever she could to protect her.

Sure enough, when King spotted Toroko the first thing he said was "Hand over the key!"

"No! I won't!", said Toroko.

"Are you trying to protect Sue? She's a stranger! She's not one of us!"

"Sue's a good person. I'd never betray her!"

"Toroko..." King said exasperatedly, "When The Doctor comes, you know he'll take someone away again. If we don't turn Sue over, it might be you he takes instead."

"But... but..." Toroko stammered helplessly.

"The key, Toroko!"

There came a strange noise from above. King looked up, and was filled with dread when he saw something plummeting down towards them, seemingly out of nowhere. Surely it was that strange creature again, coming to take him and Toroko away. The thing, whatever it was, landed unceremoniously between King and Toroko, knocking them both backwards. Toroko fled as fast as she could, lest King continue badgering her about the key to her house.

When King glanced up, he was both surprised and relieved to see that the newcomer was not the strange boxlike creature as he feared, but was in fact a mere Human boy. "Where did you come from?" King asked.

"I jumped from up there," the boy replied gesturing toward a ledge that jutted out from the wall of the cave about 100 feet above their heads. King stared in astonishment at the place the boy indicated. A fall from so high would be enough to kill, or at least seriously injure, any Mimiga.

"Wow, you Humans are a heck of a lot tougher than I realized!" King said wonderingly.

"What are Humans?" the boy asked.

King stared in puzzlement at the boy. "Are you being serious?" he wondered. The boy nodded. His expression seemed genuinely curious, and King couldn't see any trace of humor or mockery in the boy's face. "This is officially getting too strange," King thought to himself before answering the boy's question. "Humans are a race from the surface of the Earth. A small group of them landed here, on this floating island in the sky. Mimigas, like me, are the native inhabitants of this island."

"And you say that's what I am? A Human?"

"Well, I think so," King replied, "I do, however, find it hard to believe that any being could not know their own race." It was then that King began to notice the subtle physical differences between this boy and the other Humans and pictures of Humans that he had seen over the years. His skin, for example, was paler than that of most Humans, and it also lacked subtle changes in color, staying almost the exact same color all over his body. His clothing didn't move the way it should, but instead moved exactly with his body, almost as though it were a body part, rather than something that could be donned and removed at will. It was also covered with quotation marks.

"What's with all those quotation marks on your clothing?" King asked. The boy looked down at himself. "I'm not sure, but ... quotation marks..." he said pensively. King stared at the boy in puzzlement. "You see," the boy continued, "I just woke up in an unfamiliar cave a few minutes ago, not remembering anything, but I can't shake off the feeling that these quotation marks should mean something to me, make me remember things. I feel like I'm on the verge of remembering everything, but can't. It's maddening!"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," King said, the last of his initial fear and distrust having evaporated, "In any case, consider yourself welcome here at the Mimiga Village."


End file.
